Chris Messina: 28 Hotel Rooms

"What do you like about me?"

I guess I've been on kind of a Messina kick ever since I happened upon "Giant Mechanical Man" a few weeks ago. I remember seeing him for the first time in "Six Feet Under" one of my favorite tv series ever several years ago. I didn't think much of him one way or the other. Then I saw him in "Humboldt County" and wasn't sure what to think. By the time I saw Messina next in "Away We Go" which I loved, I knew at the very least that I liked it when he showed up in a film. After  "Giant Mechanical Man" which I watched over Spring Break I kind of fell like a ton of bricks for Messina and went searching for anything with him in it that was streaming on Netflix and am now obsessed with "The Mindy Project" which is an amazing show with a fantastic cast in it's own rite but which is even more so somehow because a dramatic actor like Messina is on it for some odd reason I can't imagine but am deeply thankful for.

Last night after watching Messina in "28 Hotel Rooms" I'm convinced he has real talent. In fact most of the time I find it hard to believe he is acting. I tend to feel everything he's doing as if it's actually happening and not carefully rehearsed. "28 Hotel Rooms" just to be clear is not just a film to watch so you can see Messina's penis. Although if that's all you're looking for, yeah, you're gonna get some full frontal Messina. Far from the sensation of nudity or sex for that matter, this film is a skillfully edited collection of scenes chronicling the intimacy that evolves between two people, both in relationships or married to other people as they hook up in hotel rooms during business trips over an unknown period of time. The hotel door numbers are used as intertitles/time stamps and nothing else. We see this couple, who they are, what they learn about each other and themselves only when they meet up or end up in these 28 Hotel rooms. It took me a while to really get drawn in because I had a little trouble connecting to the female lead character played by Marin Ireland who I have never seen before. Her character is someone whose conservative ideals are very at odds with my leftist sensibilities and yet it's these kinds of films which make you squirm in discomfort that make you realize how much you have in common even with someone you may never want to speak with or have anything to do with in real life. Her character evolves from a seemingly cold and distancing exterior in the beginning to something inevitably more human and vulnerable by the end. This is not necessarily a good or bad thing. It's just what happens and it's interesting and a bit harrowing to watch.

Messina's power as I recognize now, even in "Six Feet Under" is in an understated kind of delivery. The irony about this though is that he is able to be about six or seven different versions of his character during the course of this movie. I won't say that he doesn't have range. He does. But at the core is something very "Messina-like" which consists of an astounding ability he has to let himself be on camera without doing too much. He's definitely physical but he never seems to be putting on an act. His very Jewish New York accent, his endearing sort of sideways smile, the way he lets things in with his eyes, feels very much like something I've seen him do to some degree in many of his performances and yet he always seems to temper each performance to make all these same elements evoke something different in the viewer each time. Much is due as well to the director, Matt Ross who creates these somewhat airless hotel interiors where it feels often as if you're right there in the room like a voyeur, observing these two people. Very rarely does he use a musical score when they are dialoging and even when they're not, he just lets the silence be what it is and there are a few really long, pregnant silences where all you can do sit with the awkwardness of what may  may not be happening between these two characters while nothing is being said.